Until 1999,
the North facade was also topped simply with a brick cornice and parapet
but it was also little changed. Superficially, it offered a less "charming"
period view.

Yet this
elevation, as it was before the partial demolition sanctioned by Seattle's
Landmarks Board, retained architectural keys to the building's identity.
Not only did this facade - like all others - then retain its original
brickwork. The north elevation also retained all but one of its original
windows.

The single
exception was near its lowest Southeast corner. Those windows were primarily
four pane-over-four pane light double-hung wooden sash windows. Each of
them had a single-brick sill.

Most important
of all, this facade clearly displayed the only
known set of extant steam laundry drying-room windows in north America.
Prior to the loss of the North facade in 1999, Dr. Arwen P. Mohun (a Smithsonian
advisor and the author of the 1999 reference book, "Steam Laundries")
visited Seattle to record this extraordinary site. Dr. Mohun said she
knew of no other drying room - indeed no other laundry of this period
- so perfectly preserved.

The array
of windows along the North facade is of course a function of the laundry's
need for ventilation. But it also suggests that the adjacent lot, to the
North of the building, may have been at some point partially owned or
controlled by the builder. The straight, steep stairway used by the laundry's
initial workers could have become a central circulation system for a more
expanded building to the North.

The slope
of the North also exposed some of the basement windows, many of which
also appeared to be original. These were smaller-paned, six-over-six wooden
windows. Now, as with the rest of the North facade, they are lost from
view - if not destroyed.